pool light tripping breaker over night

[agnathra]

hi all, i read through the other threads and i can't tell if my situation is unique. but i know you guys will be able to point me in the right direction

if i leave my pool light on over night it USUALLY trips the breaker. resetting the breaker fixes it, but eventually it trips again, and in fact i think it will trip eventually even if the light isn't on (i'm working to test that now). but then sometimes it runs for days without tripping.

this is about a 2.5 year old led light, so it doesn't run hot. and i read about phantom tripping in some other threads but can't figure out what that is exactly.

i'm at work so i'm not sure if i have a gfi outlet connected to it...but i never have to reset an outlet or do anything like that to the breaker to get it working again. i just flip the breaker off and back on like any other breaker.

Any ideas on where to start troubleshooting? thanks!

 

[Texas Splash]

To be honest, not my area of expertise, but I have done my fair share of DIY electrical projects. In this case, I might first do as you said … see how things go with the light off. If you confirm it only trips with power applied to the light circuit, normally I would check the fixture itself. But since it's underwater, I'd probably go the easy route first and replace the breaker first to see if that resolves the issue. Breakers do go bad after all. If not, and if there is nothing else in that circuit, I'd be forced to lower the water to where I could inspect that light and fixture really well.

Perhaps another reply or two will follow.

 

[agnathra]

Well i’ve been watching it for a while and never saw it trip no matter what i was doing....until now. Just saw it trip when an ac unit (on the main panel) came on. So not proof yet, but looks more like a bad breaker?

 

[Brianf60]

What else is on that breaker? Time to rule out other devices